What Happens In The First Hour?

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Tracy is a volunteer in the hospital nursery, where seeing all the babies makes her depressed. Her best friend Julie is a nurse and suggests an infertility specialist. Tracy's husband Stan, although somewhat patronizing and controlling, agrees. They end up talking to Dr. Eva Warden, who decides to perform a laprascotomy on Tracy to make sure everything is okay for in-vitro fertilization.

Stan doesn't seem as keen on wanting a baby, especially when Tracy buys an antique crib. He thinks she is "jumping the gun." Tracy talks about being an adopted child and feeling like she doesn't belong anyplace. She is desperate for a family of her own.

In the operating room, Dr. Warden discovers a malignant tumor on one of Tracy's ovaries. She outlines the choices to Stan -- remove only the affected ovary, leaving Tracy with the possibility of becoming pregnant in the future, or do a complete hysterectomy. However, leaving the other ovary intact would leave Tracy open to a recurrence of cancer. Dr. Warden emphasizes how lethal ovarian cancer is. Since Stan has Tracy's signed consent to make decisions for her in an emergency, he orders Dr. Warden to go ahead with the hysterectomy. Tracy's other best friend Sabrina agrees with Stan. They feel that choosing between saving her life and getting pregnant would be too hard for Tracy. Dr. Warden isn't happy with their decision, she would rather let Tracy choose for herself. But she is overruled by Stan. When Tracy wakes up, Stan doesn't tell her the truth. Dr. Warden only tells her that due to the cancer, a complete hysterectomy was performed. Tracy is devastated. Once back home, Tracy destroys the crib.

During her post-surgery checkup with another doctor, Tracy complains about Dr. Warden not allowing her to make a decision. The doctor says Stan is the one who ordered Dr. Warden to perform the hysterectomy. He reminds Tracy that she had given her signed consent for Stan to act for her, and that luckily the cancer had not spread.

In a fury, Tracy goes home and confronts Stan. He explains why he made the decision, that he loves her too much to risk her life. He tells her that Sabrina agreed with him. Tracy shoves him. He falls backward, hits his head, and dies.

Tracy learns that he has left her well provided for, but her only goal is to sue Dr. Warden. Stan's lawyer tells her she hasn't a hope of winning unless there are many other complaints about Dr. Warden.

Pigging out on a carton of ice cream, Tracy sees Dr. Warden being interviewed on TV. Dr. Warden discusses the use of progesterone injections to strengthen pregnant women, and reveals she is pregnant. Tracy throws the ice cream carton at the TV set.

Deciding to ruin Dr. Warden's life as the doctor ruined hers, Tracy gets her volunteer job back. She gets Dr. Warden's home address from a rolodex and discovers the house is up for sale. She poses as a prospective buyer and a real estate agent shows her through the house. Tracy realizes from seeing blueprints that Dr. Warden's husband Joe is an architect. She thanks the agent for her time but says she doesn't want the house. Later, she returns and removes the keys from the lock box, having watched the agent punch in the code. She throws a doll in the swimming pool, moves things in Dr. Warden's closet, and leaves a CD player on the floor, playing a lullaby. She also removes the liquid progesterone from a bottle and replaces it with cooking oil. While doing this, she listens to a voice mail from the lab about one of Dr. Warden's patients. She writes down the name of the lab.

Dr. Warden is very upset when she discovers someone has been in her things. She accuses the maid, then apologizes. Thinking the doll in the pool is a real baby, she dives in to rescue it. Hearing the lullaby from the CD player also freaks her out. Joe assures her everything is fine. He thinks it's all a coincidence, that the doll was thrown in by neighborhood children.

Tracy's friends believe she is recovered. Sabrina invites Tracy to work on a real estate project with her. While Sabrina is away from the office, Tracy phones Joe Warden, using her maiden name. She pretends to be from Symington, one of Sabrina's clients, and offers Gary a possible job renovating an old building. She makes an appointment to meet him there. Unknown to her, Sabrina came back early and overheard the conversation.

Tracy goes to the lab and fills out an application, even though the clerk tells her there are no openings. Noticing that one of the doctors flirts with the pretty young clerk gives Tracy an idea. She flirts with the doctor herself, making sure he knows she has just applied for a job there. That night, she telephones the girl's husband and tells him his wife is having an affair with one of the doctors. The husband is so enraged that he orders his wife to quit her job. Tracy is hired as her replacement. She goes into the computer and begans altering the pregnancy test results of Dr. Warden's patients.

Tracy meets Joe Warden at the half-finished building and pretends to be interested in his designs. She invites him to a conference in San Francisco, where her colleagues from Symington can see his work. Joe leaves, and Sabrina appears. She confronts Tracy and tells her she needs serious help. Tracy becomes enraged and pushes Sabrina down an elevator shaft. Since Sabrina is supposed to be out of town, everyone assumes she was detained on her trip.

Dr. Warden's patients get very upset with the false results, especially those who aren't pregnant but were told they were. Complaints are made, and Dr. Warden's supervisor asks her what's going on. Dr. Warden is mystified, and also scared as things keep happening at home (doubtless Tracy visits the house regularly to move things around). Dr. Warden begans spotting and fears a miscarriage. She doesn't have one, but her doctor runs tests on the vials of progesterone. He discovers it's cooking oil, and Dr. Warden realizes someone is out to get her. She has no idea it's Tracy, having forgotten about her.

Hope this helps.